![Atbara river map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Atbara_river_map.jpg)
The Atbarah River ( ar, نهر عطبرة;
transliterated
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...
: Nahr 'Atbarah), also known as the Black Nile, is a river in northeast
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. It rises in northwest
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, approximately 50 km north of
Lake Tana and 30 km west of
Gondar
Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on t ...
. It then flows about 805 km (500 mi) to the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...
in north-central
Sudan, joining it at the city of
Atbarah (). The river's
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...
, the
Tekezé (Setit) River, is perhaps the true upper course of the Atbarah, as the Tekezé follows the longer course prior to the
confluence of the two rivers (at 14° 10' N, 36° E) in northeastern Sudan. The Atbarah is the last tributary of the Nile before it reaches the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
.
For much of the year, it is little more than a stream. However, during the rainy season (generally June to October), the Atbarah rises some 18 ft (5 m) above its normal level. At this time it forms a formidable barrier between the northern and central districts of the
Amhara Region
The Amhara Region ( am, አማራ ክልል, Åmara Kilil), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the Re ...
of Ethiopia. Besides the Tekezé, other important tributaries of the Atbarah include the
Shinfa River which rises west of Lake Tana, and the
Greater Angereb which has its source north of the city of
Gondar
Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on t ...
.
History
The earliest surviving mention of the Atbarah is by
Strabo (16.4.8), who called the river ''Astaboras'' ( el, Ασταβόρας).
[Claude Rilly, Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique, Peeters, Louvain 2010, p. 179] Other ancient authors mentioning the name include
Agatharchides
Agatharchides or Agatharchus ( grc-gre, Ἀγαθαρχίδης or , ''Agatharchos'') of Cnidus was a Greek historian and geographer (flourished 2nd century BC).
Life
Agatharchides is believed to have been born at Cnidus, hence his appellation. A ...
, who called it ''Astabaras'' ( el, Ασταβάρας),
and
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
(
Geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...
4.7).
Richard Pankhurst
Richard Marsden Pankhurst (1834 – 5 July 1898) was an English barrister and socialist who was a strong supporter of women's rights.
Early life
Richard Pankhurst was the son of Henry Francis Pankhurst (1806–1873) and Margaret Marsden (1 ...
and others have argued that the name should be understood as "River of the Boras people", where ''asta'' can be related to Proto-
Nubian ''asti'' "water",
while ''-boras'' can be linked to a number of Roman allusions to a tribe named the Bora (Bera), who lived near
Meroe, and another tribe named the ''Megabares'' ( el, Μεγάβαροι in Eratosthenes and Strabo, la, Megabarri in
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
).
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
provides a slightly different etymology of Astaboras, stating that "in the language of the local people" the name means "water coming from the shades below" (''
N.H.'' 5.10).
In April 1898 a major
battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
was fought beside the river during the
Anglo-Egyptian invasion of Sudan 1896–1899
The Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan in 1896–1899 was a reconquest of territory lost by the Khedives of Egypt in 1884 and 1885 during the Mahdist War. The British had failed to organise an orderly withdrawal of Egyptian forces from Sudan, and t ...
between
Mahdist forces and an Anglo-Egyptian Army under the command of
Lord Kitchener, which resulted in the destruction of the 20,000-strong Mahdist detachment.
In 1964, the river was dammed by the
Khashm el-Girba Dam near
Kassala
Kassala ( ar, كسلا) is the capital of the state of Kassala in eastern Sudan. Its 2008 population was recorded to be 419,030. Built on the banks of the Gash River, it is a market town and is famous for its fruit gardens.
Many of its inhabit ...
in Sudan to provide irrigation up to the newly built town of Halfa Dughaym in an otherwise fairly arid region and to resettle the Sudanese population driven away by the
Aswan High Dam
The Aswan Dam, or more specifically since the 1960s, the Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan L ...
(Sad al-Aali) in Egypt, which flooded 500 km of the Nile Valley in southern Egypt and northern Sudan.
Construction on a $1.9 billion twin dam project about 20 km upstream from the confluence of the Upper Atbara and Setit rivers, the
Rumela and Burdana dams, began in 2011 and was inaugurated by President
Omar al-Bashir in February 2017.
Hydrology
Average monthly flow (1912–1982) of the Atbarah measured approximately 25 km upstream of its mouth, measured in m
3/s:
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See also
*
List of rivers of Ethiopia
This is a list of streams and rivers in Ethiopia, arranged geographically by drainage basin. There is an alphabetic list at the end of this article.
Flowing into the Mediterranean
*''Nile (Egypt, Sudan)''
Atbarah River
*Mareb River (or ...
*
List of rivers of Sudan
This is a list of streams and rivers in Sudan, arranged geographically by drainage basin. There is an alphabetic list at the end of this article.
Flowing into the Mediterranean
*Nile
**Atbarah River
***Mareb River (or Gash River) (only reache ...
References
External links
Maps of Ethiopia- Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection,
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
{{Authority control
International rivers of Africa
Rivers of Ethiopia
Rivers of Sudan
Nile basin
Tributaries of the Nile
Articles which contain graphical timelines